WND EXCLUSIVE

Biggest names in media, gov't about to see red

Americans to flood power brokers with plea to stop this

Chelsea Schilling is a news and commentary editor for WND and a proud U.S. Army veteran. She has a bachelor's degree in journalism and also worked as a news producer at USA Radio Network and as a news reporter for the Sacramento Union.

Jan. 22, 2013, is the 40th memorial of Roe v. Wade, the 1973 Supreme Court decision legalizing abortion. A January 2010 analysis from the National Right to Life Committee found some 52 million unborn children had been killed in abortions since the Roe decision.

Now that number is closer to 56 million babies, all of whom never had a chance.

“This envelope represents one child who died in abortion. It is empty, a life taken that was unable to offer anything to the world. Responsibility and life begin at conception.”

A portion of the proceeds of every red envelope go directly to organizations committed to the pro-life cause. Richard Lepoutre, Red Envelope Day 2013 project leader, told WND he is encouraging Americans to give the gift of life this Christmas.

“While folks struggle to find that ‘perfect’ gift, supporting the Red Envelope Day 2013 campaign is a gift that will say so much to our loved ones,” he said. “Sending those envelopes through the system says to all: We will not abandon the preborn, and we will make our conviction known far and wide.”

He added, “Our specific goal this year for the Red Envelope Day campaign is to meet or exceed the number (2 million) of empty red envelopes that were sent in 2009. And from that, 100 percent of the net proceeds will be disbursed to pro-life organizations based on their participation and needs. To put that in context, that means 2 million Red Envelope Day envelopes delivered this coming Jan. 22 would result in approximately $1 million donated to pro-life organizations.”

As WND reported, in 2009 millions of empty red envelopes were delivered directly to the White House. That year, the White House mail office confirmed it received a “deluge” of as many as 2.3 million red envelopes symbolizing the empty promise of lives snuffed out in abortion in a massive campaign that was larger than most White House mailing movements in the previous 35 years.

“I’ve been here 35 years, so I’ve seen presidents come and go,” the White House mail worker told WND. “This campaign ranks up there with the big ones.”

“While that Red Envelope Day campaign energized the pro-life community, the truth is that it was ignored President Obama and the mainstream media,” Lepoutre explained. “Hallmark sold a lot of red envelopes, the post office sold a lot of stamps, but the campaign did little to fuel the pro-life organizations with the funds they needed to continue the good fight. We saw that as a missed opportunity.”

Lepoutre said his group is using new web and print technologies that are used every day by the likes of Google, Amazon and others. They spent nearly two years building a Red Envelope Day 2013 platform with two goals in mind: 1) to make it very easy for pro-life Americans to send their empty red envelopes to the White House and to other key politicians and influencers and 2) build that technology so it would generate a net profit per envelope that we could donate directly to as many pro-life organizations, as possible.

“In 2013, standing in defense of the unborn with a simple red envelope can now have twice the impact it had in 2009,” he said. “We will remind America and our country’s political leadership once again that we are still very much a pro-life nation.”

Lepoutre told WND that after the Supreme Court’s Obamacare ruling this year – and considering the likelihood that Obama will nominate pro-abortion justices in the future – it seemed obvious to include the Supreme Court justices in the 2013 campaign.

He also criticized the mainstream media for refusing to cover the 2009 campaign, during which an astounding 2.3 million red envelopes were sent to the White House.

“It was the largest mail protest since the Vietnam War,” Lepoutre said. “That is a significant news story. But with the exception of WND and a few others in conservative media, they did their best to quash it.

“So, we’ve targeted certain media outlets that are hostile to the pro-life movement and also targeted more open and influential news personalities who we hope can help us get the Red Envelope Day message out to America: We will not abandon the preborn, and we will not simply ‘stand down.’”